


Short- Sighted

by StairsWarning



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Smart!Scout
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 02:22:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2411459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StairsWarning/pseuds/StairsWarning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the Scout of Red team, you were supposed to be a ditzy, narcissistic little brat. But, you barely met any of those requirements.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Short- Sighted

So there you were, sorting through your messy room looking for the source of the horrid scent wafting through your room.

“There!” Scout exclaims, holding a half rotten sandwich he stole from Heavy a few weeks back. you throw it away, continuing to sort through your things. Since hey, if you were already sorting, why not just keep being productive? As you keep digging through the pile of clothes and throwing away old pop cans you find something you would rather have not ever had. Glasses. Thick prescription glasses. You panic, quickly glancing around and throwing the glasses into a drawer. There was only one person who knew about the glasses, and that was Medic. He was the one who updated your prescription every year or so, anyway.

As you calm down from seeing those monstrosities, you start to think back to the few years prior to joining the mercs in Mann Co. You remember when you were in fourth grade, confused out of your mind why you couldn’t study more complicated math, like your brother was. They’re in ninth grade, honey, they would tell you. You remember when your parents found out that you weren’t mentally challenged, just frustrated with the slow learning pace you were put at. You remember being in advanced calculus in seventh grade, getting your glasses in eighth, and graduating college with a bachelors degree in mathematics in tenth.

You joined the mercs as soon as you could after you graduated, adopting a ditzy demeanor so the rest of the older mercs would underestimate you. Or, just so you could make friends. Yeah, mainly that. You remember your mother suggesting you to join the military, because such a young boy as a professor? Crazy. So, you joined, immediately feeling bonded with this ragtag group of individuals.

You also remember the first time you slipped up, too. You were scouting out a potential area to capture from the reds, and mumbling mathematical equations to figure out the best way to capture the points.

“Uh, son?” Engineer questions, “What’cha mumblin’ there?”

“Oh! Uh, n-nothin’.” You quickly respond, stuttering.

You sigh, remembering what it was like in college, getting blamed and ridiculed for ridiculous things that happened on campus (“How did I punch this dude in the face if i was in your class?”). All of a sudden, Sniper bursts in, scaring the shit out of you.

“Woah, dude! What are you doin’, runnin’ around like that?” You say, grasping at your shirt.

“Medic… He…” Sniper says, taking deep breaths and doubling over. “He, ugh, he wants to talk to you… So you should, get over to his lab or whatever.”

“Ok, geez, y’didn’t have to sprint here, or whatever.” You head out to find Medic, passing by Engineer in the kitchen trying to solve an equation to aid in improving the bullets per second in his turrets. You walk up to him, instantly regretting this decision. You sit down, looking at the problem.

“Oh hey there Scout! What’cha doin’?” Engineer says, like the true mom of the mercs.

“Uhh, nothin’ much, Medic asked to see me so I’m heading over there right now, but I couldn’t help but notice the problem you were solvin’ over here.”

“Oh this? Yeah, I’ve been working on this for quite a while. I’m trying to figure out the specifics the try and get the sentries to shoot more bullets per second. You wanna take a crack at it?” Engineer said jokingly.

“O-Ok.” You mumble. This is it, either you pretend you’re dead stupid or you get made fun of and lose all your friends. Well the second thing probably won’t happen, but still. You take the paper and pencil, quickly seeing the problem and fixing the little mistakes in the equation. You solve it in about three minutes, and pass the paper back to Engineer. He looks at you, questioning your ability to do math. He looks it over and gives a low whistle.

 

“Well I’ll be damned, Scout!” He claps you on the back, grinning. “I didn’t know you knew advanced calculus! You should help me more often.” You sit there, caught off guard.

“Wait, you’re… congratulating me? Fo’ what?”

“Well, the whole team has suspected of you bein’ a dropout from high school, but that can’t be the case if you know this stuff!”

“Well, can ya’ not tell the other mercs? I don’t want ‘em thinkin’ I’m a loser or nothin’.”

“A’course, Scout. A’course.” You hurry away, jogging to Medics lab. You walk in, startled by a sudden clump of metal chucked at you. You flinch away, balancing on one leg with both your arms in front of you in a ninja-type style.

"Th' fuck was that??" You say, slowly putting your arms down.

"Oh, nothing Scout. Don't worry yourself. Now, I wanted you to be here because it is time for your yearly eye checkup!" Medic says, cornering you against the metal prescription contraption. You put your hands up in defeat, and sit in the chair behind the large contraption, looking through. You go through the long process of changing your prescription and you eventually get your largely framed glasses with the right prescription.

"But when will my contacts get here?" You say worriedly.

"Oh don't be such a baby, they'll get here within the month. You'll just have to either deal with your old contacts or wear your glasses."

"But, my contacts will wear out next week!" You say, getting more and more anxious.

"Then wear your glasses. It's not like it was when you were younger, Scout. We're your friends now. We won't hurt you. Much." You take a deep breath and leave, tucking your glasses into your pocket.

When you get back to your room, you run a hand through your hair and sigh. What the hell were you gonna do? Well one choice was to admit to your dorkish past and accept the ridicule you might get, or, be almost legally blind for a few weeks until your new contacts arrive. You honestly don't know what you're gonna do, but you think it might be better if you just... Admit what happened in your life. You walk out of your room to grab something to eat. You grab a cold hamburger from the fridge and heat it up on the microwave. As you put the toppings on the burger you jump from Spy being right behind you.

"I know something's up with you, Scout. If you're lying to us about yourself, tell us."

"I could say the same thing to you, Mr. Canada."

"Oi! I was drunk and wasn't thinking properly."

"Yeah, same difference." You say, waving your hand to dispel the conversation.

"I'm serious, Scout. If there is anything that is wrong, tell us."

"Wow, since when were you sir feelings?" Spy pulls a disgusted face and walks away, leaving you and your burger. Maybe Medic's been telling people about you, but no. He wouldn't do that. He's not that cruel. But... No.

You wave away that thought and continue preparing your dinner and sitting down at the table. You start eating, frantically thinking about all the possibilities of what Medic could have told everyone else. Or maybe it was Engineer? No, he was too paternal for that. You worriedly eat your food as some other mercs sit down to eat. Demoman sits next to you with a big bottle of Jack Daniels and a bag of chips.

“Uuuh…?” You say, gesturing to the alcohol and the chips. “Is that all you’re gonna eat for dinner? You need actual food Demo. Alcohol can’t fuel you forever.”

“Why boyo, of course it can! Well, I think it can.” Demo drunkenly says, tilting his head in a thoughtful way. You sigh, and drag Demo to the couch so he could sleep off the alcohol before he gets killed in a hungover stupor. As you sit back down to finish your pop and burger, Soldier sits down with an apple pie in hand. You don’t even try to question his meal, knowing full well that he thought that it was American of him to do so. Heavy and Medic soon sit down with ramen in hand, the only thing they both can make without burning or setting fire to anything or anyone. Pyro soon gets sat down by Engineer, with Engineer giving them a cup of apple juice to suck through a straw underneath their mask. Soon all the mercs arrive at the table either to eat or just to talk. You finish up your meal and head back to your room to sleep off the feeling of dread that’s been hanging around you since you found out about your contacts.

When you wake up the next morning, you find Pyro standing beside your bed, staring down at you expectantly. Of course, this scares the shit out of you. You fall out of your bed flailing, and land on the floor with a thud. Pyro looks at you, then hands you something, looking confused. Your glasses. You look at them, scared. You then realize that they can’t talk, so you let out a heavy breath.

“Yeah, those are my glasses.” You say. It’s not like they can tell anyone, so you might as well explain. “I’ve had them since I was supposed to be in eighth grade. I was deemed a genius by a few societies and promised a spot on a few smarty-pants boards, but I declined. I didn’t wanna be different. I wanted to be normal, I wanted to try out for track, I wanted to be the class clown, but no. I had to be a smart kid who knew algebra and calculus too well.” You sigh, leaning against your bed. Pyro sits down across from you, sighing. They sign something with their hands, but you don’t know ASL so you stop them.

“Whoa whoa whoa buddy! Didn’t know you knew ASL. Would’a learned it sooner if i did.” They shrug, and quickly stand up and put up a hand to show to wait a second. You wait as Pyro goes to grab something. When they come back, they hold out a book, and you take it. An ASL book. You look at it, astonished.

“Thanks buddy! Imma totally gonna learn this so I can understand you. Thanks, Pyro.” They nod, and skip off to do other things. Maybe today’s gonna be a good day.

You stand up, and gather your things. You take a quick shower and get dressed. When you look in the mirror, you sigh. Maybe today’s the day you’re gonna wear your glasses. Oh, fuck it. Let’s fuckin’ go. You put on your glasses, and take a deep breath. You walk out of your room with your head cast downward, hoping no one laughs. You make it to the kitchen, grabbing some fruit and getting the hell out of there when Soldier stops you.

“Scout! Since when in Davy Jones did you have bad eyesight? Only communists can have bad eyesight!”

“But, uh, Soldier, Medic has glasses and he’s not a communist.”

“For now he’s not.” Soldier says, being confusing as always. As he walks off, Pyro approaches you. When they see you’re wearing glasses, they give frantic thumbs-up, and starts hopping about happily. You smile at them, giving a weak thumbs-up. You continue walking around the base, trying to get away from everyone. But, as fate would have it, you would run into everyone today.

Medic smiles at you in the hall, and continues walking. When Spy found out, he started laughing like a douche. When you started to leave, he held you back by your collar.

“Is this all that was bothering you? Dear lord, boy. You are so melodramatic.” You roll your eyes and leave. When Engineer saw you, he smiled widely and hugged you. You stumbled from the force of the paternal hug and continued walking. You walked back to the kitchen to get more food and saw Demo on the couch. He looked over to you, clearly hung over and looking at you like you were a dream.

“Oi, Scout. Are you wearin’ glasses or am I still drunk?” You sigh, walking over to him reluctantly.

“Yeah, I’m wearing glasses. Laugh it up.” Demo looks at you like you’re crazy.

“Laugh at you? Why’ould I laugh at you? You look like a proper lad in those.” You smile at Demo, and move back to the kitchen to make some toaster waffles. Sniper approaches you, grabbing some coffee and heads out. Before he leaves he says calmly,

“Those glasses fit ya, Scout. Hope you’re as smart as those look.” You stand there, stock still. You smile. This day was a lot better than you originally thought. Thank everything. You run around the base the rest of the day, trying to get as much done as possible, with your newfound confidence. When it was time for dinner, you went back to the kitchen, absolutely starving. When you sit down with spaghetti in hand, Engineer is at the table with blueprints in front of him. He looks at you expectantly, asking you to look at them. You take the blueprints, fix the errors, and return the sheet without much trouble.

Over the next few weeks in the base and on the field, you show off your skills in advanced calculus, algebra, and geometry to show improvements to the strategies in the field. The first time Miss Pauling makes her way to Blu base, she scoffs at Scouts eye apparel and looks at overviews of their overall performance. She looks surprised at their sudden number of wins, and asks Engineer what happened.

“Well, Scout finally showed off his amazing abilities in algebra and geometry to improve our strategies!” Engineer said, visibly proud. Miss Pauling only glanced at Scout, amazed.

“Really? Scout? Is that true?” Miss Pauling asked.

“Well, yeah. I just thought that I would be put in equally bad light that I was put into when I was younger.” You explain.

“Scout, did you just use big words?” Miss Pauling asked.

“As big as my dick.” You say cockily. Miss Pauling laughs loudly, and smiles at you.

“Well, thanks Scout, for helping the team.” Miss Pauling says, moving on to the next topic. You stand there, blushing like an idiot for a moment, still as deeply in love with Miss Pauling as you were the day you met her.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow this was a LOT longer than i originally thought. I got this idea from discussing TF2 headcanons with a friend. Other headcanons in there include Canadian!Spy and either Genderfluid!Pyro or Genderneutral!Pyro. You can recommend more fic ideas at my tumblr stairswarning.tumblr.com


End file.
